A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Tony Blair continues to manipulate the Catholic Church

Tony Blair has written an article in the latest edition of The Tablet, which describes itself as an "international Catholic weekly". The article's subject is the work of Mr Blair's Faith Foundation in promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Mr Blair neglects to tell Tablet readers that his government interpreted the MDGs to include a universal right to abortion on demand which, along with other anti-life policies he pursued, he has refused to repudiate since being received into the Catholic Church (see below). Mr Blair quotes Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez who has said that "the needless deaths of nearly 10 million children a year are an abomination that cannot be tolerated". Cardinal Rodriguez was referring to the deaths of born children from disease. Interestingly, Mr Blair does not quote Cardinal Rodriguez's call for life and the family made to politicians and legislators in 1996, the year before Mr Blair became prime minister:

"Abortion is a primordial evil and one of the fundamental problems of our age ... We call for a massive international effort by politicians and legislators in favour of human life ... We call for legal protection for the unborn child from the moment of conception. We recommend unequivocal pro-life legislation on embryo experimentation and genetic engineering ... We call for an end to the 'contraceptive imperialism' of population control promoted with the use of abortion, sterilization and contraception."

"A politician who publicly supports abortion, he excommunicates himself ... [T]hat person himself is doing an act that is inconsistent with what he says he believes. That is, we're talking about a person who...is doing something that is a lie."

"It is inadmissible that those who have control of the wealth and resources of mankind should try to resolve the problem of hunger by forbidding the poor to be born." (address to UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1974)

"[I] declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children." (Humanae Vitae, 1968)

"[W]hatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction...are infamies indeed. They poison human society" (Gaudium et Spes, 1965)

Mr Blair explains the Faith Acts Fellowship programme that his Faith Foundation is running in partnership with the InterFaith Youth Core, but neglects to inform Tablet readers that the Interfaith Youth Core is bankrolled by pro-abortion foundations and that the Faith Acts Fellowship works with World Vision, which is calling for abortion on demand to be legalised in the world's poorest nations. Mr Blair says the programme's fellows will need "compassion in the face of needless suffering and death" - yet what compassion has Mr Blair shown for the needless suffering and death of the unborn and the vulnerable caused by the laws and policies he promoted?

Mr Blair, stretching to his full moral stature, preaches to us: "[S]ins of omission can vary in their gravity, and the worst can be more grievously damaging than sins of commission." Indeed - omitting to repudiate anti-life laws and policies for which one is mainly and personally responsible, and refusing to witness to the sanctity of human life.

Mr Blair predictably reminds Tablet readers that "countering climate change [is] the greatest moral challenge of this century." So, Mr Blair, is countering climate change the greatest moral challenge of this century, or abortion? Was Pope John Paul II wrong to tell pro-life leader Fr Paul Marx that he was "doing the most important work on earth"?

Supposing Tony Blair had pursued throughout his political career, policies in support of killing bishops or the lay faithful of, say, the Catholic Church or the Anglican Communion? And, supposing, having been received into the Catholic Church, he refused to repudiate such policies? Would The Tablet give him free rein to present his thinking on religious matters? If not, why not? What distinctions does The Tablet draw between unborn children and the respect due to their right to life, and the right to life of Catholic and Anglican bishops and lay faithful?

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John Smeaton

About me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 33 years. I became director of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

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